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Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane
- President Thandi Modise granted an extension to a group of panels to decide if there is a prima facie case for the removal of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkwhebane.
- The panel consisting of retired Constitutional Court magistrate Bess Nkabinde, defender Dumisa Ntsebeza, SC, and defender Johan De Waal, SC, was initially expected to complete their work within 30 days.
- The panel now has 90 days to complete its work and must provide all documents to Mkhwebane, who will be able to respond in writing.
The independent panel appointed to determine whether there is a prima facie case for the removal of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkwhebane, has been granted an extension to do its job.
The panel, made up of Judge Bess Nkabinde, Defender Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, and Defender Johan De Waal SC, held its first meeting earlier this week, on Wednesday. He then made a presentation to the President of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, requesting that the 30-day period prescribed in the rules to carry out the investigation be extended to 90 days, starting on November 25.
“This is based on the fact that the evidence to be evaluated is voluminous and the need to provide the Public Protector with a reasonable period, among other things,” Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said in a statement Saturday.
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Mothapo said Modise had considered the request and believed that it was reasonable under the circumstances.
“It is imperative that the panel have the time to carefully study the motion and the evidence and, as part of its deliberation, also give the Public Protector a reasonable period to make presentations.”
Mothapo said Modise had noted that the rule prescribing the 30-day period, Rule 129X of the Assembly Rules, did not provide for an extension and decided to invoke Rule 6, which allowed the Speaker to frame a temporary rule to address the gap. in current rules, such as “unforeseen eventualities”.
The rule allowing the extension will be published in official parliament documents, Mothapo added.
The panel meeting comes after the Western Cape High Court determined there was no prospect of success in Mkhwebane’s request for permission to appeal the court’s decision for failing to stop the National Assembly deportation proceedings against her on Wednesday. .
READ | Removal of public protector: Mkhwebane’s request for permission to appeal is dismissed
Mkhwebane had submitted a two-part application after the deportation process began in the National Assembly earlier this year, submitted by the Prosecutor’s Office.
In his two-part court application, Mkhwebane had first asked the court for an injunction to stop the deportation process. And secondly, it asked him to declare unconstitutional and invalid the rules that the National Assembly adopted for deportation proceedings in December last year.
